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Retro Gaming News

Retro Gaming Weekly News #0030

Posted on February 6, 2023August 10, 2023 by Owen

Month one of 2023 is complete! This week in 1990 one of the greatest games of all time was released on the NES. Can you guess what it was? I’ll give you a clue if you found an instrument you could progress quickly [answer at the bottom].

We have been doing a quick video of the top 20 SNES games ever, doing a 30-second video for each, and you can check these out on our TikTok, Instagram or YouTube accounts.

News

If you are a fan of Japanese-exclusive games then you might be pleased to hear that the Super Famicom game -Kaizou Choujin Shubibinman Zero has been fan translated as Shockman Zero, and it looks like fun [Destructoid]. Link

There is a lot to love about this type of game.

There are rumours abound of there being a Lego Zelda set which might be released at the same time as the new game [Gossip Chimp]. Link

Limited Run Games have begun pre-orders for the 3DO/PC game “D”. Link

Whilst we are on Zelda, The Gamer report that A Link to the Past has been ported to the PC. Link

Crunchyroll games have released Hime’s Quest (a new game for the Game Boy Colour) for the PC for free! Link

Love to give baddies a good old-fashioned debugging….?

Nick Offerman – the lead for “The Last of Us” (well worth a watch) has never played the game he is performing for. Why? Banjo-Kazooie for the N64, that’s why [Comicbook.com]. Link

Goldeneye is finally on the Xbox – but they kept in the original bugs to “preserve authenticity” [IGN]. Link

The PS5 has finally outsold the Sega Megadrive – with sales of 32m units [Kit Guru]. Link

The Sega Astro City Mini V Cabinet is available in Europe [GameSpew] with 22 actual arcade games installed. Want. Link

Features

The Boar has a feature on 50 years of gaming, from Pong to the PS5. Link

The Express has a feature looking at some of the best video game books, with some notable mentions for a number of retro-related publications. Link

The Gamer reveals that Sonic was up against an egg to be the mascot for sega. Link

Game Rant looks back at 6 things that the Game Boy Advance did better than most other handheld consoles. Link

Who does not love dinosaurs? Skoar takes a look back on the brief history of dinos and video games, from Turok to Yoshi (is Yoshi a dinosaur…?_). Link

Lists & Rankings

Nintendo Life gives their view on the 50 best Game Boy games of all time. Link

Exputer tells you the best 35 multiplayer N64 games. Link

Game Fragger looks back at 38 years of Spider-Man in video games. Link

Cultured Vultures presents to you the 15 best Sega Saturn games of all time. Link

That’s all folks. The answer to today’s question is Mario 3 (the magic flute was the clue). Thanks for reading, and if you enjoy this, please do share the love.

Retro Gaming News

Retro Gaming Weekly News #0029

Posted on January 30, 2023August 10, 2023 by Owen

Welcome to this week’s edition of the newsletter, 31 years ago this week one of the greatest RPG games ever was released in Japan for the Sony PlayStation. The focus of the game is to save the planet from Mako – can you guess the game?

News

Someone has upgraded their NES to generate Bitcoin whilst he is playing Super Mario. Definitely not a get-rich-quick scheme [Twitter]. Link

Square Enix has issued a survey asking fans what HD-2D games they would like to see next, you have until the 8th Feb to vote [In Japanese]. Link

Super Nintendo World is opening on 17th Feb in Universal Studios in Hollywood – and GameXplain has captured more than 30 Easter eggs found and shared it on video [YouTube]. Link

US Customs (apparently) ruined a graded and sealed copy of Pokémon Yellow for the OG Gameboy [CBR]. Link

Limited Run Games start taking pre-orders for their Gameboy game “Melon Journey (Pocket)” for $45. Link

Game Reactor reviews the “N64 Encyclopedia” by Chris Scullion. Link

Xbox has launched the N64 Classic Goldeneye for Game Pass [Xbox]. Link

Wonder Boy Anniversary collection is now available on the Nintendo Switch [My Nintendo News]. Link

Naoto Ohshima (the Sonic artist and game designer) has been answering questions on Twitter and shared some early art showing that Sonic was proposed as being a human child and the game was pitched as being called “Twin Stars”. [Reutir]. Link

Remut (a musician who releases music on old games) is remaking a classic German Film called “Decoder” on the Sega Genesis/Megadrive) and you can pre-order for €34.99/€44.99 [Real Otaku Gamer]. Link

In homebrew news, a talented person is bringing Castle Vania to the Sega Master System [YouTube]. Link

Very good looking by Master System standards.

8 Bit Mods have started shipping the RetroTime N64 Bluetooth controller received with a memory pack. Now you can play your N64 using a large range of controllers! [New Stock Due 13th March]. Link

Features

Cultured Vultures has a list of the 15 best Sega Game Gear games of all time. Link

Softonic looks back at the best (and most random) ads in the history of video games. Link

The best ads (and the most random) in the history of video games

Mistah MegaManFan has done a video on some of the unlicensed games that were released on the Sega Megadrive/Genesis – Oh Mummy, Elf Wor, and Xeno Crisis [YouTube]. Link

Lists & Rankings

Paste Magazine has a list of the best Fire Emblem Games, can’t say I have ever played one, am I missing out? Link

And if you want to play them in order, ATOF has got you covered. Link

Bingeful gives you their opinion of the best Fighting games of the 90s. Link

The Gamer give their list of the best “Black Box” NES games (games that came in the OG standard Black Box – see below). Link

And that’s a wrap, thanks for reading, the answer to the question is Final Fantasy VII. If you want more content and updates, you can follow us on TikTok, Instagram or Twitter.

Retro Gaming News

Retro Gaming Weekly News #0028

Posted on January 23, 2023August 10, 2023 by Owen

Happy Monday! A character from a famous fighting franchise turns 56 this week (27th Jan). He is known for his agility and speed and was known as “Balrog” in Japan. Can you guess this week’s birthday boy?

News

Did anyone hear of Cannon Dancer? Aka Osman? Me neither, it was an arcade-only game that has finally made it to the home consoles and it looks great [EGM Now]. Link

Gonna give this a try, looks most excellent.

Reto Bit Gaming has announced a Game Boy Player-inspired GameCube controlled [Nintendo Life]. Link

If you have not seen it already, then you have to check out this amazing retro gaming setup shared. Link

Features

Promotional video games still happen, you often find a TV series accompanied by a mobile game, but back in the day, it was a more experimental phase and it gave the world some really strange combinations, Cracked dives deeper. Link

Harald Hardtooth: Fight of the Clean Teeth 000000 1UP RELEASED ON: COMMODORE 64 CRACKED.COM Released in Denmark, this is Colgate's answer to the question where is an anthropomorphic tooth to fight bacteria in the ramshack town that is my diseased mouth? — No caption needed.

GameRant has a look at why so many RPG’s were missed on the N64. Link

Spoiler, cartridges have less storage space than CDs. Remember multi-CD games, I cant think of any multi-cartridge N64 games…

Final Weapon looks back at the evolution of video game controllers. Link#

I had a Megadrive as my first real console (I had a Game Boy before this), and Super Jump Magazine takes a trip down memory lane looking at the console designed to dominate the NES. Link

Whilst we are on Sonic, Reutir has some rare facts on Sonic the Hedgehog. Link

Nerdbot has a feature looking at the ever-popular Hyperspin arcade systems. Link

Lists and Rankings

ScreenRant looks back at the 10 Genesis (Megadrive) games that made SNES owners jelly. No mention of the massively underrated LandStalker. Link

When a screenshot along brings back such sweet memories.

Kotaku, the usually solid gaming news platform shows us that no outlet is too big for a ranking – and gives their view on the Pokemon games ranked. Link

Slashgear has the 15 rarest N64 games. Link

A Nintendo 64 console and controller with game cartridges — Fun fact, the N64 carts cost developers $30 where as the CD consoles at the time were a mere $1

Pocket Tactics also gives their opinion on the best games for the Game Boy Advance. Link

Thanks for reading, we will be back next week, the answer to today’s question is the Spanish bullfighter – Vega.

Retro Gaming News

Retro Gaming Weekly News #0027

Posted on January 16, 2023August 10, 2023 by Owen

Welcome to issue #27! Not really, so much was released historically this week and I could not find any birthdays, so let’s celebrate 29 years to the release of Super Maio Land 3 on the Gameboy.

News

A NES Zelda VR remake using a Doom mod is (or maybe has) being made, based on the Famicom Disk System Legend of Zelda. Confused? Read more [TechSpot]. Link

This NES Zelda VR remake was created using a Doom mod — caption…

Sega has shut down ‘The Unofficial MD/GEN: A Visual Compendium’ book that was being developed by Bitmap. Strange when you consider they let a Master System one get made and Nintendo (who are the kings of litigation) let theirs go [News.com.au]. Link

Bitmap Books says it tried to stick to third-party titles, but Sega still shut the project down. Picture: Bitmap Books — This might be as close to the book as you will ever get

Want to run Java on your N64? Well, you might be in luck [Hackaday]. Link

Features

Could you name the NES launch titles? GameRant looks back at the USA launch lineup. Link

“While we are at it we might as well do the SNES launch titles as well.” – Someone at the GameRant offices (there were only 5). Link

“Shall we do the N64 as well?” GameRant. Link

Slashgear want to tell you about what they consider to be the best video game launches of all time! Link

I love a failed console, there is something special for me about the hype and eventual downfall of the next big thing (I purchased a Tiger R-Zone after discovering it whilst making this newsletter). GameRant has a list of 8 good games on failed consoles. Link#

The Apprentice (bottom right) for the Philips CDi had some good looking graphics.

It’s 1985, the great video game crash happened and the Famicom was slowly restoring faith in the industry, but did you know Atari was going to be the company to bring the NES to the West it was to be called the “Advance Video System”? Inverse talk about it being shown at CES and the subsequent rest of the story [Inverse]. Link

Totalntertainment looks back in a shot feature of the evolution of music in video games. Link

Some of you might have seen the 80’s cartoons of Mario and Zelda, but there were more planned. CBR revealed which almost made it. Link

The Enlightened Mindset (?!) has a nice feature on the creative minds behind the Sony Playstation. Link

Use RetroShell to stop your games from getting damaged

Lists/Rankings

Den of Geek gives you 15 NES game secrets you never knew existed – like the password for Metroid “Engage Ridley Mother F*cker” I kid you not (replace the star with the letter). Link

Metroid NES — Engage Ridley one more time, I dare you I double dare you mother f*cker.

Nintendo Life has run a reader poll and given you the 50 best NES games of all time. Hard to argue with the results, but I will not spoil them for you. Link

Pocket Tactics give their view on the beat games for the OG Game Boy & Color. Link

The Virtual Boy was a strange thing, I own one but must admit I do not play it at all as it’s really not easy on the neck. Destructoid ranks the 10 best games for the system. Link

That’s all for this week, thanks as ever for reading and please keep that feedback coming. If you are on TikTok or Instagram, please give us a follow by clicking on the links.

Retro Gaming News

Retro Gaming Weekly News #0026

Posted on January 8, 2023August 10, 2023 by Owen

I hope everyone’s new year is starting well. This week 36 years ago a Zelda game was released in Japan, can you guess what system it was released for (answer at the bottom)?

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Thanks to everyone that has taken the time to share the newsletter with friends, family and retro-gaming communities worldwide – it is appreciated.

News

Game Rant looks into some of the interesting omissions from Mortal Kombat II after the recent source code was leaked. Link

A much more cunning plan than just killing them.

Lego is releasing a New Atari 2600 video game console set [Digital Spy]. Link

lego icons atari 2600 video game console adults set — Another one for the “want but don’t need” category

With CES being across the news, the show has a “Wall of shame” which showcases a number of failed tech. Some honourable mentions for retro gaming [Daily Mail]. Link

The Virtual Boy was only for sale for 5 months in Japan and 7 months in the USA.

The Switch has overtaken the Game Boy to become the third best-selling console of all time [The Gamer] can you guess numbers 1 and 2? Link

Someone is porting Starfox to the Sega Megadrive/Genesis and it looks pretty good. Link

Features

Fan Banter looks at how video game graphics have developed through the years. Link

Video game crossovers are not a new thing, some make sense, others less so. Pocket Tactics look at some of the weirdest ones. Link

Hackaday discusses an epic quest to build the ultimate Game Boy. Link

There was a mask that was due to be put in the Majora’s Mask, which never made it into the game as it would have broken it. Screen Rant report. Link

Look into my eyes, don’t look around the eyes. You’re under.

Leiria Economica (wtf) gives you 5 things you did not know about the Super Nintendo (I knew one of these things. Link

I said the door was closed because I was BANKING mum.

Next in the random publication hitting you with nothing but facts is OIC Canadian (???) telling you 5 things you didn’t know about the Nintendo 64. Link

Lists

Video games are fun, but did you also know they are able to predict the future? Well, I did not but Hard Drive gives you 4 examples of where video games perfectly predicted the future. Link

Want to relive the 80s through nothing but video games? Well, Unique News Online have 6 games to help you capture this time. Link

GamePur has a list of the greatest handheld consoles. Link

Destructoid has a list of their 10 best NES soundtracks, with some games I am unfamiliar with. Going to check some of these out. Link

Silver Surfer Lizard Stage — A lot is going on here, but this is the best music of any NES game ever (according to Destructoid).

And that’s a wrap for this week, the system Zelda II was launched on was the Famicom Disk system. Thanks for reading and if you have any comments or feedback, please let me know!

Retro Gaming News

Retro Gaming Weekly News #0025

Posted on January 2, 2023August 10, 2023 by Owen

Happy new year to all the readers! I wish you all the best for the coming year.

This week, a certain video game character turns 57 – this character has appeared in a lot of games nfirst appearing in 1985, and is immune to poison. Can you guess who it is?

News

There is a Rom hack being developed for Ghostbusters for the Megadrive/https://www.retroshell.com/product-category/sega/Genesis which will include Winston [Bloody Disgusting]. Link

A programmer has managed to get PC games running on a NES! Far too complicated for me to really understand, but impressive [TecheBlog]. Link

Run Microsoft Windows Games NES — Off to find Princess Whats Her Name

The Arduboy Mini is live on kickstarter and the reviews seem good for this matchbox sized, 8 bit, monochrome gaming device [The Verge]. Link

Rumour has it that F-Zero might be coming back in 2023 [GameRant]. Link

A WWE star (Xavier Woods) got the entire N64 collection for Christmas – lucky (rich) man [GameRant]. Link

This is what my face would look like if I got the entire N64 USA collection for Christmas.

The Polymega has just announced pre orders for a module allowing you to play N64 cartridge [HypeBeast]. I was not familiar with the PolyMega, but it looks like a fine piece of hardware 😍. Link

Polymega Ultra Module Set EM05 N64 games news retro gaming nintendo video games — Some very nice hardware. Want.

Features

In a nice feature, Nintendo Life look back at the gaming magzines of 30 years ago to see what they were reporting on and how they were reviewing the hot new releases back in 1992. Link

I miss the excitement of gaming magazines being the sole source of news.

Gamers Grade have an article discussing which was the best Nintendo generation? Link

Pigsy’s Retro Game Dev Tutorials has a video looking at the 25 new Sega Genesis/Megadrive games in production for 2023. Link

Paste Magazine has a guide on modern handheld consoles to play retro games. Useful as there are quite a lot these days. Link

A Beginner's Guide to Retro Gaming Handhelds — Too many games, not enough time

24sSports have a lit of the best 10 Sega Saturn games. Link

Another Shining Force game I was not aware of 😍

Want to know what its like to play N64 on the worlds smallest monitor? Then TecheBlog will enlighten you. Link

Gaming Smallest Monitor World — He likes to watch…

Lists

The Gamer looks at 10 games that are turning 30 this year. Amazing ability to create a list out of nothing. Link

CBR (the Kings of lists) have decided to rank every Donky Kong Game (No mention of the actual game Donkey Kong, which is strange). Lin

ScreenRant (the queen of lists) have a list on 10 innovative gaming technologies that flopped with a few honourable mentions in the retro category. Link

GameRant (see a theme with the previous news source…) also love a list. Here they rank all of the Nintendo console controllers. Link

Duelshockers has a look at the best rail shooters of all time. Link

Might want to get those wounds looked at

Thats all for this week. The answer to this weeks birthday is Princess Peach! Thanks for reading and please do give us a like and/or a share if you enjoyed it.

Retro Gaming News

Retro Gaming Weekly News #0024

Posted on December 26, 2022August 10, 2023 by Owen

Retro Gaming News, Uncategorized

Retro Gaming Weekly News #0023

Posted on December 19, 2022August 10, 2023 by Owen

Welcome to issue #23 of the newsletter, thank for all of the feedback on the survey – it is appreciated and is already shaping the newsletter (for the better I hope) – I will do a separate edition to share the results with you all. If you still want to give your views, you can find the survey here.

Bomberman was released 37 years ago today (19/12/87) for the Famicom and a certain video game character turned 35 (17/12/87). His OG name was Rockman, can you guess who he is (answer at the bottom)?

Remember Baywatch? You will love Nostalgiatron.

News

Switch online has added 4 new Megadrive/Genesis games – including Columns [Eurogamer]. Link

The Daily Mail report on what they think is the largest video game collection in the world, worth an estimated $2.1m. I truly believe that retro is a wise investment. Link

The angels decided to pimp their iPad with colourful dots

A forgotten game called Scramble Training for the Sega AS-1 has been found at a car boot sale featuring some Michael Jackson video [NME]. Link

The Wonderboy anniversary collection will be launching on January 26th for the Switch [Nintendo Everything]. Link

Articles

Redbrick have a feature on the gaming on the wars in the 90’s and the impact on wider gaming. I used to be team Megadrive (Genesis) as that is what my parents got me, but it’s hard to see it as being better than the SNES these days. Link

Continuing the console history theme, Stratechery have a history go video games starting way back in 1958, its well worth a read. Link

Khabar Non Stop have a feature on the Rare “Play Boy” handheld that was never released (unfortunately). Link

Meet The "Playboy" Handheld, Rare's Unreleased Game Boy Rival | Time Extension — Someones (was) gonna get sued

Destructoid have a feature as they revisit on Final Fight 3 on the SNES. Link

Final Fight 3 Haggar Beating Nazis — Take a look at what I’m wearing, people. You think anybody wants a roundhouse kick to the face while I’m wearing these bad boys? Forget about it – Mike Haggar

If you have a VR unit and want to recreate a working 90’s bedroom of your dreams, you need EmuVR (can be played without as well) [Lifehacker]. Link

4mm Acrylic “built like a tank” display cases for your retro games

Make Tech Easier have a run down about the best dedicated controllers for retro gamers. Link

Who knew there was a game called Millenium Falcon Challenge? Who knew there was a games console called the Tiger-R Zone. If you answered no to either question then you will enjoy this look at the “worst games console of all time” and a forgotten Star Wars game [California 18]. Link

This Star Wars video game you've never played: Millenium Falcon Challenge — Full disclosure, I never knew this existed until now.

Yahoo News has a gift guide on dedicated modern consoles to play retro games (and controllers). Link

Each tee is limited edition and individually numbered

Lists

The Hawkeye give their ranking on the classic MegaMan games. I never really played any of them and should really get around to doing so. Link

Graphic by Alexander Cha — Rockman (spoiler alert for the question in case anyone reads this)

The Review Geek look at the top Mario games of all time, and there are some surprising entries amongst the more usual suspects. Link

Thats all for this week, the answer to the question is Mega Man (aka Rockman). The link to the survey is here – and please share with communities if you enjoy the newsletter. Thanks!

Retro Gaming News, Uncategorized

Retro Gaming Weekly News #0022

Posted on December 12, 2022August 10, 2023 by Owen

Last call for the survey on content – some very interesting and constructive responses so far and I will share the results in a future episode. You can find the link here and it will only take 2 mins of your time.

On this day (12th December) in 1960 – a character from Street Fighter was born. He likes John Wayne films, his hair and dog walking. Can you guess which character turning 62 today (answer at the end of the newsletter)?

I have broken the newsletter into new sections (thanks for the feedback) – let me know how this works for you as it will include all consoles in all sections (broken down as News/Features/Lists – NFL).

Everything else is just a flimsy plastic case

News

Final Fantasy V celebrated turning 30 – it was an iconic game in an iconic series, and Nintendo Life go into why it was a landmark in the series. Link

25 years later, the once cancelled Airball for the NES is being released (also available for GBA) by Retro Room Games – you can view the trailer here.

Toejam and Earl and getting a film (The Verge)! Link

Features

Nintendo Life has a nice feature on Christmas gifts for Nintendo fans. Link

Essentially Sports looks at the gaming life of Elon Musk as he suggested the Atari 2600 was his first console. Link

CRT’s and Retro Gaming go together like ET and landfill – the smallest CRT ever released was the Panasonic CT-101, so of course someone has hooked it up to a NES to play retro (TecheBlog). Link

Panasonic CT-101 Smallest Color CRT TV Super Nintendo — What is this? A TV for ants?

Abernic are launching the RG35XX which comes in a Game Boy style case and comes with 2 Micro SD Card Slots, a 2100mh battery and an IPS screen with HDMI out and an A9 processor (Notebook Check). Link

Hackster have info on modding a Game Boy Advance to be a wireless whole house remote. Link

And Peta Pixel have a feature on 3D printing new lenses for the Game Boy OG camera – 2 bit all the way baby. Link

**An Elegant Camera for a More Civilized Age**

Wired review the Evercade EXP (spoiler 7/10). Link

Want some geeky, retro inspired Christmas Tree decorations? Gizmodo has got you covered! Link

Chained Echos is getting rave reviews for modern consoles – it is a 16 bit (retro) inspired RPG which looks great. He is the YouTube launch trailer. Link

Khabar Nonstop have a feature on the Nintendo seal of quality that adorned many of the best games. Link

CBR has a feature on why Kiddy Kong was so controversial (I never knew he existed 🫣). Link

Final Weapon has a feature on gaming in the 90’s. Link

Reutir looks at 8 bit compatibility on modern OS’s. Link

Lists

Gamespot have a long list of the greatest NES games of all time – and inspiration to revisit some of these classics. Link

CBR love a list, so when the decided to share us their best Nintendo games with the worst endings we just had to feature it. Link

And GameRant has a list of the 6 N64 games with the best cut scenes. Link

10 things you did not know about the Atari 2600 (Adafruit). Link

Cultured Vultures has a list of the 20 best N64 games of all time. Link

#11 was a Japanese only release – any ideas?

No one: The Gamer: The 7 best Alligators in video games. Link

And finally

Thanks for reading, please help me to improve by giving your feedback on the survey (link here).

The answer to this weeks question is Guile!

Retro Gaming News, Uncategorized

Retro Gaming Weekly News #0021

Posted on December 5, 2022August 10, 2023 by Owen

39 years ago this week the innovatively named ”Baseball” was launched on the humble Famicom. You can play one of the granddaddy of sports games here.

Thanks to those that have shared their feedback on the survey – if you have not, I would be very grateful if you could spend 2 mins letting me know what you like or don’t like about the newsletter so that it can be improved. Here is the link.

Nintendo

Game Rant has some weird ports of retro fighting games. Streetfighter 2 on the Spectrum anyone? Link

Contestants in this year’s tournament were feeling blue.

There is a new trailer for the Super Mario Bros. film. Link

Some footage of a lost Metroid games for the N64 has surfaced (The Gamer). Link

Ruetir has some interesting (or not) facts about Donkey Kong. Link

There is a new multi-game changer for the Game Boy Colour, which is totally crazy, but sometimes crazy is cool (Hackaday). Link

Complicated solutions for simple problems

Tech E Blog has a complete history of Super Mario Kart and why is was made. Link

Complete History Super Mario Kart Nintendo — Mario Kart v1

Destructoid has a list of the 5 best games for the N64, not as obvious a choice as you might have thought. Link

Other

ABC News have a feature on the rise of demand for retro consoles. Link

Destructoid has compiled the best consoles that are the worst to collect for. No mention of the 32x! Link

Make Use Of have an article on which modern console is best for retro gaming (the ones you can hack usually…). Link

Want to know the best 10 Sega Genesis games that were made in the 21st century? No? Well either way CBR have a list. Link

None sighted thus far in the 21st century

And CBR also has a look at some cancelled Konami games which might have been nice had they actually seen the light. Link

Pong has turned 50! Yahoo/Engadget have an interview on its creation. Link

Spokesman has an article on how to care for some of the retro consoles, nothing ground-breaking but definitely some “good to know” points made. Link

That’s all for this week, a gentle nudge to give your feedback on the newsletter if you have 2 mins you can spare. Please do share the newsletter with friends and retro communities if you enjoy it.

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